Big Idea 2

Gas Laws
 Opening thoughts…

Have you ever:

Seen a hot air balloon?

Had a soda bottle spray all over you?

Baked (or eaten) a nice, fluffy cake?

These are all examples of gases at work!

Physical Characteristics of Gases
Physical Characteristics Typical Units
Volume, V liters (L)

Pressure, P atmosphere
(1 atm = 1.015x105 N/m2)
Temperature, T Kelvin (K)

Number of atoms or mole (1 mol = 6.022x1023

molecules, n atoms or molecules)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kT7oUB0q6Q
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIPrsWuSkQc
 Differences Between Ideal and Real Gases

Real molecules do take up space and do interact with each other (especially
polar molecules).
Need to add correction factors to the ideal gas law to account for these.
Ideal Gas Law
 Gas Laws
• Boyle’s Law Avogadro’s Law
• P1V1 = P2V2 V1/n1 = V2/n2
• Charles’s Law
• V1/T1 = V2/T2
• Gay – Lussac’s Law
• P1/T1 = P2/T2
• Combined Gas Law
• P1V1/T1 = P2V2/T2
 Boyle’s Law

Boyle’s Law - describes the relationship between

pressure and volume of gases.

P P1V1 = P2V2
V https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=ZoGtVVu3ymQ
 Gas Laws Explained – Boyle’s Law

• Boyle’s Law says that the volume of a gas is inversely

proportional to the pressure
 Decreasing the volume forces the molecules into a smaller space.
• More molecules will collide with the container at any one instant,
increasing the pressure.

volume
pressure
This law is valid as long as the temperature and the amount of gas are constant.
 Charles’ Law

Charles’ Law - describes the relationship

between volume and temperature of gases.

V1 V2
V =
T1 T2
T
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=oIfFoiwRCVE
 Gas Laws Explained – Charles’s Law

• Charles’s Law says that the volume of a gas is directly

proportional to the absolute temperature.
 According to kinetic molecular theory, when we increase the temperature
of a gas, the average speed, and thus the average kinetic energy, of the
particles increases.
• The greater volume spreads the collisions out over a greater
surface area, so that the pressure is unchanged.

temperature
This law applies to ideal gases held at a constant pressure,

volume
where only the volume and temperature are allowed to change. 
 Gay-Lussac’s Law

The pressure and absolute temperature (K) of a gas are

directly related at constant mass & volume.

P1 P2
=
P
T1 T2
T https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHD-32rUHkE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJzHzEnkXJE
 What does it mean?

• For a gas at constant mass and volume, the pressure and

temperature are directly related.

temperature
pressure
 Avogadro’s Law
• Volume directly proportional to the number of gas molecules
V = constant × n
Constant P and T
More gas molecules = larger volume
• Count number of gas molecules by moles.
• Equal volumes of gases contain equal numbers of molecules.
The gas doesn't matter.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-
vA9uLSf7Y
 Avogadro’s Law

When the amount of

gas in a sample
increases at constant
temperature and
pressure, its volume
increases in direct
proportion because
the greater number
of gas particles fill
more space.
The volume of a gas sample increases linearly with the number of
moles of gas in the sample.
 Combined Gas Law
• It is a law that combines the previous laws into one.

P1V1 P2V2
=
T1 T2
P1V1T2 = P2V2T1
 Combined Gas Law

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bftkRnTcFj8
 Dalton’s Law of Partial Pressures

The total pressure of a mixture of gases equals

the sum of the partial pressures of the individual
gases.

Ptotal = P1 + P2 + ...
 Gas Laws Explained – Dalton’s Law
• Dalton’s law: the total pressure of a gas mixture is the sum of the
partial pressures.
• According to kinetic molecular theory, the particles have
negligible size and they do not interact.
 Particles of different masses have the same average kinetic energy at a
given temperature.
• Because the average kinetic energy is the same, the total pressure
of the collisions is the same.